mickyg

The way the parts breakdown and colouring go on this, it almost looks transformable!

Sure am, Noel! Now that I've seen it, it's not quite as extreme as I was originally thinking. Still, going to be tricky to get any sort of angle approaching 90 with the standard Draken clear cradle. I'll have to experiment a little to see what's possible. EDIT: Wow, make that anything approaching 45 degrees. Just tried it and it comes unclipped very easily. Seems the Draken is a bit top-heavy with reference to the mounting point on the bundled cradle.

Ooooh, I like that a lot!

That is fantastic! Can't wait to see how this one turns out.

If nobody else chimes in, there's always the "bat wing" scheme a few others have mentioned. Personally, I'd like to see it done up in a Nora scheme. Too gaudy? If you want to go real world, maybe look at some Saab Draken photos for some inspiration?

Wow, beautiful Viggen! Which part? Seeing if it will fly?

Thanks guys! Still trying to figure out how I could do one inverted or at least have both on their sides so the canopies are facing each other. The adapters aren't particularly tight for these things though and I'm almost certain the valk would just fall out of it. The 262 is a definite, it's really just resting in the adapter "cradle." So perhaps I should focus on the 31 as the cradle for it actually seems to grab hold of the contact points a lot more solidly.

A few more:

Coupla Delta Valks on a Beta stand. No problem!

My Millia just arrived via cheapest SAL option from NY. 11 days (including weekends) is not bad at all! "Is that you in there?"

I got my start in 2008 I believe. I took a business trip to Japan, shortly after getting re-interested in Macross and finding these forums. One visit to Akihabara and seeing all the stuff I couldn't afford as a kid was all it took to start "the bug" of Macross collecting. I came back with a 1/55 Origin of Valkyrie chunky Super VF-1A Hikaru. Shortly after that I discovered HLJ and nabbed a special on the same thing, but in the form of the Yamato V2. I sold the chunky (wish I hadn't) and that was the starting point. I think I paid about $125 shipped due to some sort of sale. I collected model kits for a while, because toys were just too expensive. Then gathered up a few of the Yamato Valk kits that you assemble yourself. Life got busy with kids and work and I didn't collect much. Probably between 2009 and 2015 actually. There have been a few changes in my life and there's a little bit more disposable income so I've added to my 3 or so toys. The collection now stands at a fairly meagre 20 toys (by typical MacrossWorld standards). This includes HM-R as well as 1/60 scaled stuff from Yamato, Arcadia and Bandai. In summary, it's taken me about 9 years. Just take your time and pace yourself.

That is a fantastic scheme! Would love to know how he mounted the missiles on those DX wings though.

I went straight to Battroid on mine and got really stressed out with the wings and arms twisting bit, felt like the wings were always in the way when attempting to move the arms up and rotating the whole assembly. I have to admit though, the amount of engineering that went into making sure it all worked, is nothing short of astounding.

Absolutely agree on the cracking thing with parts that need to flex. I didn't hesitate on the head part, as this is the "face" and a vertical seem both looks ugly and it's easy to fix. That, and it doesn't need to flex.

I didn't use any glue on the VF-25G kit I built but plan to on this build. I've already used some extra thin cement on the white halves of the head, right at the front. There was no way the seam would have been closed otherwise. I expect there will be a few more parts like that along the way. Looking forward to continuing on this one, which is something I definitely didn't feel when I was nearing the end of the 25G. Thanks for all the tips and observations from everyone too. Means I know a lot better what is that I'm getting myself into.

I'll have mine when SAL shipping gets it here. Interested to see how it will work or if I'll need to paint it to get the look I want. I started on my 31F kit tonight and built the head. I like how the sprue marks are mostly hidden but think the clear blue eyes are a bit wasted, given how Darke they appear when it's all closed up. So I painted chrome silver on the back of them. It sort of helps. In hindsight, white would probably have been a better choice. I do like how at least this part fits together though. I can tell the kits have improved a lot over the years since Frontier kits were released. Blue is from a blue Gundam marker, brassy metal around the "jaw" is a mix of gold and steel Mr Metal Color, and the eye is under coated with chrome silver from Mr Metal Color as well.

It also looks as though the decals are not silver but some form of gray as well. Please tell me they're just not photographing well.

Good to know. Thanks!

Anyone tried removing the hands and closing it up without them in fighter mode? I'm curious if it affects the gaps at all. I may try it myself, actually.

What a simple method to deal with the skirt. Here I was thinking you'd need to remove material from your existing design when it's as simple as adding a bit more! Excellent!

It's by far the harder of the two to deal with. And my own setup would actually work better with the banking adapter as well.

Sorry about the spam, but thought this needed a separate post. The SV-262 stand parts have a longer skirt than the VF-31 part, pictured above. So while it will be able to fit over the Standing Adapter, it will not sit all the way in, due to that offset "kink" in the printed adapter. I think it'll still fit enough to hold but I'd exercise caution with any orientation that will cause lateral stress to the joint. Sorry, don't have the parts here or I'd show them fitted to better illustrate. By the way, wonderful job on the new design, CY - the bevelled tab on the adapter now makes fitting these up to the stand parts soooo much easier!

Just got my adapters in today (thanks CY!). I was under the impression that the new stand parts shipping with the 262 wouldn't fit any of the YetiStand printed adapters. I think it's only an issue with the Banking adapters. Here's a look at the new shape: And here's the VF-31 Battroid part, for comparison (has a similar "skirt" to the VF-262 parts):

Nice work! Mine is still sitting in fighter on my desk. I'm a bit timid about transforming it, not just because it's supposed to be tricky, but because it's been so busy lately and having it partially transformed between breaks in work, seems like it's a recipe for breakage.

Mine was oily on the stab/shield, under the film on the inside and outside surfaces. No paint stripping as a result though.